Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my question is: when breeding cresteds, do the male and female need to mate before the female lays each clutch of eggs OR if the male and female are together for a few weeks will the female, after being removed from the male, continue to lay fertile eggs? in other words, do females store sperm? Also, will females lay infertile eggs if no male is in the cage with her? I thought i had 2 females but i didn't. they are in 2 separate cages now but the books really don't seem to mention anything about breeding except putting them together. i took my female out because the male was breeding with her so frequently that she took to hiding all the time and not eating. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to respond.

I have not seen it in my cresteds yet where the females lay infertile eggs just being around the males OR are triggered to do so with seasonal/ temperature changes. My leopard geckos used to do this and my female tokay has done this though. It would not surprise me if the cresteds did this. If your eggs are still pearly white after 5 days or so, chances are pretty good they are fertile. Commonly infertile eggs will be yellow or turn yellow.

The female cresteds do hold sperm. They start laying clutches in 2’s and lay up to 6-7 months sometimes. I have seen them lay in 2’s as early as 3 weeks apart and as late as 5 ½ weeks apart.

Good call on separating the two of them. I separate them if I know she is gravid and sometimes sooner if he is a little too rambunctious and she becomes reclusive.

Hope this helps.

Severa

Just a quick note. Yes they do store sperm, yes you should separate as soon as possible, and very much yes females can lay infertile eggs. My virgin female who has never even met a male gecko laid 3 clutches last year and reabsorbed a 4th. In my experience they do not yellow.

Personally, I think she's going for a world record or something. Worries the daylights out of me how much stress that is for her, but no "tricks" stop her. Scares me even more to imagine how many fertile clutches I would get if she did breed.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

thank both of u for responding. Since she was with him for quite a while i'm going to treat the eggs as fertile. Plus now i know a little more about their whole breeding process. My female has laid 3 clutches at about a month apart. thank you once again.

Has your first clutch not hatched yet?

Just 5 minutes ago, i'm a nervous wreck LOL...see above question that i posted. Thank you.